The Borderlands series, like most great looter-shooters, is filled with intricately designed and sometimes notoriously difficult bosses. After all, where else would you go to search for the rarest of loot? It’s not going to be somewhere anyone can stumble upon. You’ve usually got to earn it in battle.

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Not all bosses in this first-person shooter series are made equal. Some are much harder than others, with their large pools of health, invincibility stages, hard-to-dodge attacks, or even the chance to down you in one hit. So, whether you’re looking for a challenge or looking to avoid something too punishing, knowing which boss fights are the hardest in the series will undeniably help you.

10 Badassasaurus Rex

You Might Hurt Yourself

• This boss reflects bullets and lacks exploitable weaknesses.
• He brings no minions to get second winds from.

This truck-turned-dinosaur is a fight that isn’t optional, at least not if you want to complete Borderlands 2‘s DLC in the True Vault Hunter or Ultimate Vault Hunter modes. This boss is encountered during the main quest line of Mr. Torgue’s Campaign of Carnage.

What makes the fight so hard? Most of the surface area of this boss reflects projectiles back at you. There’s also no cover in the arena you fight this boss in, so dodging its attacks, or your own at times, is incredibly challenging. If you do go down, there are no minions to kill to revive yourself either.

Thankfully, Badassasaurus has large, red weak spots in the form of fuel tanks for you to shoot.

9 Joey Ultraviolet

Along With His Underbosses

• This boss has waves on underboss minions that can wear you down.
• He can heal large portions of his health.

This brightly colored cartel boss is found at the end of Borderlands 3‘s Revenge of the Cartels event.

This fight has multiple stages, starting with a stage where you have to fight waves of lesser enemies, including a random assortment of the cartel’s underbosses, before Joey jumps down to fight you. He has multiple stages, starting with a shield, and switching to a gun once he’s taken enough damage.

Once he throws his shield away, he will occasionally heal large portions of his health back. While all this is happening, traps like laser beams and pools of acid will turn on as the fight progresses.

Joey becomes resistant to elemental damage in his final stage, so it’s a good idea to bring at least one non-elemental weapon.

8 Crawmerax The Invincible

The Original “The Invincible”

• This is the first-ever Borderlands raid boss.
• This boss only receives damage in critical zones.

This is the original Borderlands raid boss. Crawmerax is an optional boss you can fight after completing the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC. This giant Crab Worm receives zero damage on most of its body, which would explain the name.

The only way to hurt it is by destroying the bright purple critical hit zones across its body, which are small in comparison to the rest of Crawmerax, and constantly moving. The critical hit zones also each have quite a bit of health. Even worse, one of the zones is on the back side of Crawmerax, making even looking at it a bit of a challenge.

It’s a good idea to take this one out first so you don’t waste as much time if you die trying.

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Ready, Aim, FIRE!

Given that this is the original Borderlands game, and the first-ever raid boss in the series, there aren’t many overpowered builds to choose from to fight Crawmerax with.

7 Terramorphous The Invincible

True Tentacle Terror

• This is the first raid boss in Borderlands 2.
• This boss has strong tentacle minions to get in your way.

Terramorphous The Invincible is the first raid boss in the most difficult game in the series, Borderlands 2. It’s accessible with a quest aptly titled “You. Will. Die. (Seriously.),” given to you after you beat the main quest line.

This overgrown thresher has tentacles that will come up from the ground to throw boulders and fireballs, as well as shoot laser beams at you. The tentacles can spawn anywhere in the arena, making them impossible to avoid. The tentacles themselves are strong enemies, with a considerable amount of health and dealing major damage, making it a challenge to juggle fighting them off and dealing damage to the boss.

Terramorphous is weak to fire damage, but occasionally enters a fire stage where it becomes immune to it. Luckily, this stage doesn’t last very long.

6 Dexiduous the Invincible

This Is Going To Take A While

• This towering foe has more health than any other boss.
• It doesn’t have a dedicated arena, making it unpredictable.

This massive drifter has the most health of any boss and by nearly tenfold. It is an optional boss that can be summoned with Eridium at any time in Borderlands 2’s Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt DLC.

This boss isn’t the hardest in terms of attacks, often slowly striding through the map and not attacking at all, but it is the most time-consuming because of its gigantic pool of health and damage resistance. You will have to target and destroy small critical hit zones to do effective damage against Dexiduous. It’s a test of your aim and patience in equal measure.

Don’t forget, if you do die, you have to start all over. Unlike most bosses, Dexiduous doesn’t have a dedicated arena, which at least allows you to use vehicles against this boss.

5 Hemovorous The Invincible

There Are Two Of Them?

• Two identically difficult bosses attack you in tandem.
• They have hefty shields, armor, and health.

Hemovorous The Invincible can be spawned in the Director’s Cut DLC for Borderlands 3, and this Varkid brings back an old friend (or foe depending on who you ask). Not only are you fighting Hemovorous The Invincible, but this fight also includes the identical Vermivorous The Invincible, a familiar name from Borderlands 2, at higher mayhem levels.

On their own, they’re tough but fair, but dealing with two at once is a serious challenge.

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The fight is also a bit misleading, with Hemovorous starting as a larva and evolving into a massive beast as the fight progresses. In their final stage, Hemovorous and Vermivorous have shields and armor on top of their health, so bringing a corrosive, shock, or fire weapon is a good idea.

4 Hyperius The Invincible

A Little Bit Of Everything, All At Once

• His minions give him a shield.
• Be prepared for inescapable novas.

Hyperius The Invincible was the first seraph guardian introduced to Borderlands 2, with the Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate’s Booty DLC. Like all seraph guardians, defeating him is not easy. This Hyperion engineer has minions that give him a strong damage reduction shield. If you damage his minions enough, they’ll switch the shield over to themselves while they repair and heal, making it hard to get rid of them permanently.

If all four of his minions are either destroyed or are in the process of repairing themselves, you can damage Hyperius normally. However, once you deal enough damage, he grows in size and his attacks become much quicker and more frequent, including his nova attacks that are impossible to dodge.

Between the strong attacks, high health, damage reduction, healing minions, and unique shield mechanics, this fight has a combination of challenging mechanics working against the player.

Luckily, he has the most exploits of any boss in the series, so you can take him out in seconds with the right strategy if you’re not committed to fighting fair. Zero’s B0re skill can kill him in one shot, for example.

3 Master Gee The Invincible

He’s Literally Invincible

• He can only receive damage from acid pools in the first phase.
• The acid pools are crucial to utilize but can damage you.

Once you beat Hyperius, you’re now able to fight Master Gee. This pirate is truly invincible, at least at first. As you fight him, Sand Worms will spawn that leave behind pools of acid. If you touch these pools, you will receive a stack of a permanent damage-over-time effect.

However, Master Gee can also receive this effect, and it’s the only thing that can damage his first shield. Once his first shield is destroyed, it completely regenerates, but you can now damage him in other ways. Unfortunately, he has one of the largest pools of health of any Borderlands boss.

There is a notable exploit where you can get Master Gee stuck in the entrance gate, instantly killing him, if you can’t beat him any other way.

2 Voracidous The Invincible

Where’s The Ammo?

• This boss has a minion that rotates a massive shield between them.
• There’s no ammo in the arena at all, making strategic play critical.

After you complete Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt, you become able to fight this stalker and his handler, Chief Ngwatu. Voracidous will relentlessly chase you down, while the chief rotates a massive shield between Voracidous and himself.

No ammo spawns in the arena, and given the amount of damage you have to deal to win this fight, that poses a serious problem. To make matters worse, Voracidous’s critical hit spot is completely inaccessible most of the time and he can down you almost instantly.

If fighting fairly isn’t working for you, there are plenty of exploits to win this fight if needed. Notably, using the Trespasser sniper to take out Chief Ngwatu can get rid of the shield entirely.

1 Ancient Dragons of Destruction

They’re Using Teamwork!

• There are four dragons you have to fight simultaneously.
• The dragons’ abilities synergize with each other.

After you complete the main quest line for the Borderlands 2 DLC, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, you have the opportunity to tangle with the Ancient Dragons of Destruction.

Each dragon has a different set of abilities and attacks. Helianth does shock damage and can heal the other dragons. Brood does corrosive damage and can spawn minions. Incinerator does fire damage and has immunity stages. Boost does slag damage and periodically raises the level of the other dragons. They’re fiendishly designed to complement each other.

There are no exploits for this fight, so you’ll have to take out these dragons the old-fashioned way.

It’s typically recommended to take out Boost and Helianth first, since they buff the other dragons, saving Brood for last since it spawns minions that can get the player crucial Second Winds if needed.

Released

September 18, 2012

Engine

Unreal Engine 3

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol

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